Scientists identify hepatitis virus

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 17

Scientists identify hepatitis virus

i By

HAHOLD M. SCHMECK Jun.)

\X ASHINIGTON. United States Government scientists recently announced the first identification of the virus that causes infectious hepatitis, one of the most important known infectious diseases, for which the causative agent has eluded science. Infectious hepatitis is a liver disease. Jt affects at least 50,000 Americans a year; perhaps many more. While not usually fatal, it, can involve many weeks of debilitating illness. The successful identification, through electron microscope pictures of the virus believed to cause the disease, is expected to aid greatly its study, understanding and diagnosis. The scientists involved

hope their research will also; contribute to the long-range! objective of developing a' vaccine or some other pre-i ventive measure against the! illness. ' A more certain prospect is I that it will enlarge scien-l tists* understanding of the] true scope of infectious! hepatitis and its role in liver! disease. Still to be answered,! Tor example, is the question; lof what role, if any, in-1 Ifectious hepatitis plays ini the development of chronic and incurable liver disease. SERUM HEPATITIS The picture of the presumed virus of infectious hepatitis also shows that it is physically distinct and different from the virus believed to cause serum hepatitis — a closely similar liver disease transImitted from person to person mainly through blood ‘transfusions. I In recent years it has beIcome clear that the two different diseases are caused by different viruses. I Until now, however, knowledge of the difference has been based mainly on the evidence that infection with one does not confer immunity to the other. Capture on film of the image of the infectious hepatitis virus is reported in j the latest issue of “Science”, technical journal of the American Association for .the Advancement of Science. The authors of the report are Dr Stephen M. Feinstone, Dr Albert Z. Kapikan and Dr Robert H. Purcell, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Dis-! eases. MANY TESTS In the report, the scientists describe in detail the many tests they performed in the search for proof that the particles they have been examining under the electron microscope are not chance contaminants, but are related to the disease. I In the past there have been numerous false leads and frustrated hopes in scientists’ efforts to find the virus that causes infectious hepatitis. The announcement of the discovery was made at al news conference at the National Institute of Health! in Bethesda. Maryland.

DECADE OF WORK In an introduction, Dr John R. Seal, scientific director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that the new accomplishment depended on the achievements of many scientists at many institutions working on the hepatitis problem for more than a decade. > He cited in particular the work of Dr Saul Krugman of New York University and scientists at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre. It was from scientists associated with Walter Reed that he team at the National Institutes of Health got specimens of serum and extracts of faeces from persons experimentally infected with hepatitis that figured importantly in the search for the virus, RESEARCH VOLUNTEERS The experimental infections were done several) years ago among prisoners: at a penitentiary at Joliet,) Illinois, who volunteered to take part in the research. Although it has been possible to transmit the illness) from one person to another, 1

and recently to produce it in' marmosets, the virus itself had defied all efforts at identification. Furthermore, it could not, and still: cannot, be grown in the’ laboratory in tissue culture. Success m capturing the. image of the virus on film | came from using a technique called immune electron mi-| croscopy, learned by Dr Ka-I pikian from Dr J. D. Almeida of the Royal Post-: graduate Medical School in 1 London. In this method materialj thought to contain the sus-l pected virus is treated with! serum containing anti-bodies thought to be produced by a! person or animal against! that specific virus. When the serum does! match the virus it causes! the individual virus particles to aggregate together in clumps that are much more easily seen in electron mi-I croscope pictures than the individual virus particles | themselves. LIKE POLIO VIRES Dr Purcell said the newly photographed virus appeared to be roughly similar in size and shape to polio virus, although the viruses of the two diseases are believed to be totally unrelated. The term hepatitis simply means imflammation of the liver. Whether it is caused by the virus associated with the infectious type or that of serum hepatitis, the disease causes fever, nausea, physical weakness and jaundice. The illness and its effects may last, for many weeks. Infectious hepatitis is usually spread by direct contact or by contaminated drinking water or food. One of the prime advantages of identifying the causative agents- of both serum and infectious hepatitis is to see more clearly than has been possible how each fits into the total picture of liver disease. The new indentification of 1 the presumed virus of in-i fectious hepatitis should also! help doctors develop a way! of testing the efficacy of samples of the blood fraction gamma globulin to be used as a hepatitis preventive for close contacts of patients who have the dislease. — (Copyright, “New